The present invention relates to methods of removing leukocytes from whole blood or platelet concentrates.
It is widely known that for the vast majority of transfusion therapies it is desirable to remove the leukocytes from donated blood, typically by filtration, prior to the transfusion of the various blood components into a patient.
It is desirable to remove the leukocytes since their presence may have adverse effects on the patient. For example, leukocytes may cause non-hemolytic febrile reactions and/or HLA allo-immunization. Leukocytes may also induce graft versus host reactions. In addition, leukocytes present in contaminated blood may harbor various viruses. At the same time, the removal of the leukocytes does not generally have negative implications for the recipient since the leukocytes serve no useful purpose in the vast majority of transfusions.
The current practice is to remove the leukocytes from the various blood components after these have been separated from whole blood. Thus, each portion of whole blood is typically first separated, e.g., by centrifuging and/or filtration, into a number of components or fractions, principally (1) packed erythrocytes (red blood cells); (2) platelet concentrate; and (3) plasma. Each of the fractions then undergoes separate treatment, typically filtration, to remove the leukocytes present in that fraction.
For example, in PCT/US94/01413 the present inventors describe unique, membrane-based filters for removing leukocytes from packed red blood cells or for removing both leukocytes and platelets from whole blood. The filters described in PCT/US94/01413 capture platelets and are thus unsuitable for the removal of leukocytes from platelet concentrates or from whole blood.
A difficulty with filters such as those disclosed in PCT/US94/01413 is that they are limited to treatment of specific blood fractions rather than to whole blood. This limitation makes it necessary to carry out a number of separate filtrations, each using a specific filter, to separately remove the leukocytes from each of the blood fractions.
It would be advantageous to have an efficient filter capable of selectively removing leukocytes from whole blood, i.e., a filter which would effectively capture leukocytes while effectively passing the other blood components, including the plasma, red blood cells and the platelets.
The ability of selectively removing leukocytes from whole blood with the attendant recovery of red cells and platelets would have significant operational and cost advantages. In practice, whole blood would then be filtered to remove leukocytes only once, preferably in the blood bank. Following this filtration, the leukocyte-free blood would be separated, as by centrifugation, into leukocyte-free fractions and processed in the usual manner.
The removal of leukocytes from whole blood requires a special filter which captures leukocytes but passes red blood cells and platelets. Currently, no such filter is commercially available, although at least one such filter is described in the literature. Specifically, a whole blood leukocyte filter is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,153. However the performance of that filter, as described in the above-referenced patent, is far from satisfactory, considering current internationally accepted standards. Current international standards call for residual leukocytes of no more than 5.times.10.sup.6 per unit of blood. Platelet recovery is expected to be no less than 70%.
There is thus a need for, and it would highly advantageous to have, a universal filter exhibiting high platelet recovery and very high leukocyte retention.